When it was over, when the final horn sounded and the lights went up on the Manchester Arena in England, no one could really be sure what they had just witnessed. A 46-year-old man as UFC world middleweight champion? Maybe.
Over the course of five rounds, Dan Henderson dropped Michael Bisping twice, setting off flashbacks to the first match between them.
Back then, in 2009, Henderson had authored what is largely considered one of the most devastating knockouts in mixed martial arts history, a shattering right hand followed up by a flying jackhammer for added style points.
This, at UFC 204, was not that. But it was close. Thisclose. So close to the end, to the storybook finish that so many wished for him. Henderson himself later said that in that moment, he allowed himself to dream it, if only for a second. The only difference this time around was Bisping’s heart and unwillingness to lose in front of his countrymen. Each time he fell, Bisping rose and fought on, resetting himself and adding up points through volume. Each time Bisping rose, Henderson regrouped for another wind and another attempt to add to his magnificent highlight reel.
By the end, Bisping was bleeding from all over the head, and Henderson looked much as he did when he first stepped foot in the cage 30 minutes earlier.
It was one of those fights. Henderson’s power vs. Bisping’s output. Throw in the emotional stakes of a retirement fight, and it made it difficult to objectively evaluate what was truly happening.
Certainly, there was a large group that felt Henderson won. But the three cageside judges felt differently.
“I came up a little short, but not bad for an old man,” Henderson said in his post-fight interview right afterward. “I wish they judged the fight based on how you look after the fight.”
If they did, there would have been no contest.
In the end though, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it matters in the sense that Henderson doesn’t get the UFC championship, the one major belt that managed to elude him through a near 20-year-career. But it doesn’t matter in that it doesn’t change a single thing about how the fight world views his career.
In the end, Henderson belongs on MMA‘s Mount Rushmore. In the end, Manchester was cheering him. The fight world was cheering him. Even Bisping was cheering him.
“This guy is incredible,” Bisping said. “At his age? He just kicked my ass, man. After all the trash talking, you gotta respect the guy, he’s a legend.”
At 46, it’s over for Henderson. He reaffirmed that after the fight after waffling a few times during fight week. Though the end came with the struggles that befall most professional fighters—he lost seven of his last 10 bouts—his legacy is left unaffected.
With career wins from 183 pounds all the way up to heavyweight; with championships in multiple organizations; with a career that spanned from the wild west early days of the sport to its slick and modern prime, Henderson is—as Bisping says—a legend, and is near the front of the conversation as the greatest American mixed martial artist ever.
That was reaffirmed by this bout. If we’re being honest, the objective possibilities for Henderson in this fight were never strong, essentially boiling down to the landing of the “H-Bomb” that became his late-career trademark.
“Puncher’s chance” is a term meant for a night like this, for a fight like this.
It almost happened.
In this year of the impossible, the improbable and the downright bizarre, it would have made some kind of karmic sense if Henderson retired as the UFC champion.
New York finally passed MMA; the UFC was sold to a new ownership team; CM Punk fought in the UFC; Brock Lesnar returned; the booking strategy has gone straight cash, first, last and always.
Hell, this fight itself was bizarre because of the circumstances surrounding it. For one thing, Henderson, who came into the bout ranked No. 13 in the division, only got it because of a fan push on social media; for another, to cater to North American pay-per-view audiences, the match started at 4:50 a.m. local time.
Yes, you read that right. Old man Hendo had to cross eight time zones from California to go across the pond and fight a man nearly a decade younger than him in his hometown, and at a time when 99 percent of the local population is deep in REM sleep.
That’s a hell of a task for anyone, but if anyone was going to do it, why not a legend?
He almost did it.
“Before this fight, I had accomplished enough in the sport and was satisfied with that,” he said in the post-fight press conference. “There was one more thing I wanted to do. I really worked my ass off in training camp and thought I did enough to get it done. I’m frustrated I didn’t get it done, or that I didn’t get credit for it. I know there’s no changing it. I have to live with it.”
At least there’s plenty of good to live with too.
Thirty-two career wins.
Knockouts of Fedor Emelianenko, Hector Lombard, Mauricio Rua and Bisping.
UFC tournament champion and RINGS King of Kings in the 1990s, PRIDE welterweight and middleweight champion in the 2000s, Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion in the 2010s.
His talent crossed divisions, his success spanned generations.
Regardless of what the judges had to say about Saturday night, Henderson can leave with his chin high. He knocked Bisping down twice. He knocked the breath out of us. He may not have left the champion, but like every other time, he left us thinking, Man, can that guy fight.
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